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LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday suspended until October 12 the provincial assembly membership of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz's Rana Asif Mahmood on grounds of holding dual nationality, DawnNews reported.

Chief Justice LHC Umar Ata Bandial stopped the MPA from attending the Punjab Assembly session and issued notices to all those party to the case.

The petition seeking Mahmood’s disqualification had been filed by a citizen Faisal Ilyas Sadiq. He had submitted that the respondent was a Canadian national and under article 63 of the Constitution a person holding dual nationality could not be elected as member of assembly.

Prior to today’s ruling, the petitioner's counsel had argued that the country's Constitution and laws did not allow dual nationals to become members of parliament and provincial assemblies and since Mahmood also possessed Canadian nationality, his assembly membership should be suspended.

Mahmood's counsel said that his client only held a Canadian passport and that he was not a Canadian citizen.

However, the petitioner stated that under Canadian law, passports were given to those who were citizens of Canada.

After hearing the arguments, the court suspended Mahmood's assembly membership until October 12.